The affairs of the Belgians, external and internal, continue to
exhibit a melancholy picture of weakness and recklessness. The laws are without energy, the government without power, the legislature without influence.
At Antwerp, on the 31st of March, a serious riot broke out, in which the adherents, and those who were considered to be adherents of the Orange cause, were indiscriminately attacked. The mob attacked the offices of the Journal d' Anvers and the Journal de Commerce, whose windows they soon destroyed ; they then proceeded to the house of the ci-devant Burgomaster, where they broke both windows and doors, and sacked the house from top to bottom. The next object of their attack was the mansion of the ex-Colonel of the Garde Communale ; which, however, they did not succeed in entering. They then visited the exProcureur du Roi ; where they gained an entrance, and destroyed every thing. The exciting cause of these troubles, is said to have been an injudicious cry, raised by a merchant of the city, of "Vive le Prince d'Orange !"
The riots at Antwerp were merely disgraceful; those which have occurred at Ghent exhibited features of more revolting and .cowardly atrocity. We give the particulars in the words of the Belgic journals.
"GHENT, April 4.—A deplorable event has just afflicted our city. M. Voortman, a manufacturer, was seized by t he populace at the door of his manufactory, to which he had come in a cabriolet. He was accused of Oranneism. The mob went to his manufactory to demand some cannon said to be deposited there. M. Voortman, on his way to the place, was warned of what was passing, and advised to turn hack: trusting in the arms he carried about him, he unhappily persisted, and when he got to the place, was attacked and disarmed, and required to give up the cannon, which he refused ; lie-was then led away by two soldiers of the civic guard, and the mob carried him about the city ; on the bridge oil' Eel tire a dagger dropped from his coat, on which a woman struck h in in the face with a wooden shoe, and drew blood. The solders in vain tried to protect him from the popular fury; one of them received several blows aimed at the unfortunate manufacturer, who, when they reached the market-place, was promenaded three times round the tree of liberty, against which they dashed his face and horribly mutilated it. They then led him through several streets to the parade, where Baron Coppens saved him from being massacred, and had him taken to prison, to rescue him from inevitable death ; but probably this succour will prove to be too late. The surgeon Who dressed him, found that he had eleven bayonet and two sabre wounds. His life is despaired of. It is repotted that the vengeance of the people was drawn on him by his having said to his men, who asked for work, 'If you have nothing to eat, go and suck the tree of liberty which you have planted.' Nothing is left of the manufactory hut the bare walls." From the speech of this M. VOORTMA.N, it may be concluded that he had rendered himself unpopular by his personal as well as political behaviour; but what is to be said of the laws or police of a city that permits a man to be dragged from street to street, and murdered by inches, in open day? And what is to be said of the wretches—women too—who could continue for hours inflicting on a human being, however disliked, such a series of barbarities ? The slaughter of the man at once would have been defensible, compared with such lingering torture. The National Congress continue their debates after much the same fashion as usual. Great regret is now expressed by the members of the Government, that instead of returning the protocols of the Allies, of the 17th November and 20th December, which seriously trench on the independence of the States, the Congress contented itself with merely protesting against them. The proposal of raising Prince LEOPOLD to the throne of Belgium has been more soberly entertained within the last few days than at any former period. The popular, or Anti-Orange party, seem well dis posed, provided he will accept of them. There would be one great advantage in being in Belgium—if the Prince and his subjects disagreed, he could in four-and-twenty hours take up his old quarters in Pall Mall ; it might not have been quite so easy to get out of the Morea.
The Dutch States-General met on the 2nd instant ; when a discourse was pronounced by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, in which he says, that notwithstanding the assent to the protocols by Holland, and the hopes founded on them, no progress towards a settlement of the disputes between Holland and Belgium had been made.
"The Powers represented in the Congress of London," said his Excellency, "were treated in a manner that could not be expected in civilized Europe, even in the midst of war. Our territory is continually violated by Belgian marauders, who make individuals residing near the frontiers feel all the hardships of war. The communications with Maestricht are in some degree open, but the Belgian troops have by no means retired to the positions which they occupied before the 21st November 1830; nay, the Belgians have gone further, and publicly propose to renew hostilities with us. The Regent has sworn to a constitution which is at variance with the rights of Holland, and with the protocols of the Five Powers, and in his installation issued a proclamation which shows a manifest disregard to all that has been done."
The speech concludes by expressing a hope that the hour is not distant when the Powers may think of opposing with vigour the unjust pretensions of the Belgians. The Powers, at present, seem to have enough to do with their own affairs.
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